Course Catalogue

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This course aims to enhance the students' ability to communicate in the context of an English-medium Engineering undergraduate programme. Students will focus on academic discourses and genres relevant to their Engineering studies. They will develop their skills in analysing straight-forward spoken and written technical texts.

4 hours per week for first 6 weeks; then 6 hours per week for 11 weeks

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Written exam: writing, reading 30%

Project output: written project 20%

Group discussion: 15%

Oral presentation: 15%

Set exercise: in-class test of listening and writing 20%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

Due to the nature of the group discussion assessment, this component cannot be reassessed. The initial grade for the group discussion will be used when calculating the resit grade.

This course aims to:

■ develop students' ability to meet the particular requirements of different writing tasks within engineering contexts

■ improve students' engagement in engineering-specific lectures, labs and seminars

■ develop students' critical approach to reading academic material of a technical nature

■ develop the language and discourse strategies required to communicate in a team and take part effectively in formal presentations and discussions of a technical nature

consolidate students' sub-technical and core engineering vocabulary range.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ apply a range of strategies to critically engage with lectures, labs and seminars of a technical nature

■ analyse, evaluate and synthesize engineering-related spoken and written texts

■ participate effectively in formal presentations, discussions and team projects using appropriate discourse strategies on technical subjects

■ incorporate technical and sub-technical vocabulary with accuracy and flexibility when producing spoken and written texts

■ write well-organised reports and documents of a technical nature, following discipline-specific academic conventions

■ critically reflect on their learning, setting and reviewing independent learning goals.

Students must submit or attend all the scheduled summative assessment components (written project, group discussion, class test of listening and writing, oral presentation, and written exam) to ensure that all language skills are assessed. Due to the interactive nature of this course students must be present at 90% of timetabled seminars and tutorials, at which attendance is recorded.